At 2:12 AM -0500 4/29/06, Richard Lynch wrote:
But I'm totally serious here -- I made this decision in college circa
1981, and I wrote the same long program both ways, and hung the two
versions up on the wall side-by-side, and I liked the one with { on
the same lines better.
I even solicited my non-programmer roommates' opinions, and they also
preferred the braces on the same line as ASCII art.
Well, that settles it -- if non-programmers like it, then it must be
correct. :-)
It reminds of a time where a large oil company's "Geophysicist" was
evaluating other consulting Geophysicist's work (I was one -- see
http://geophysics.com ). He took our work product (highly technical
seismic displays) and hung them on a wall and had everyone in the
office (accountants, secretaries, UPS delivery man, etc.) parade by
and pick the display they thought looked the best. To the winner, he
awarded a multimillion dollar contract!
It had to be the worst way to evaluate a Geophysicist I have ever witnessed.
-------
I daresay an experienced programmer is going to pick the style they
prefer as "prettier."
I don't know about prettier, but I certainly strive that every piece
of code I write to have a consistent style that I recognize as mine.
Plus, when I see another programmer use the same style, I naturally
assume that he's very intelligent. :-)
Additionally, the style I've developed cuts across several languages
I've known.
------
Though it would be an interesting experiment for some psychology
student to A/B compare with programmers, non-programmers, experienced
programmers, etc...
That may be an interesting study as to how we perceive and solve
problems -- anal-retentive vs the free-will types and all variations
in between. Each, I am sure, has their place in the overall scheme of
things.
But, I will pass on to the group here that I have noticed (over the
last 40 years ) in my programming that the size of my monitor is
generally in direct relationship with the size of my functions.
In addition, the larger my monitors, the more white space I use in
making my code "pretty" and documented. In my view, there is no
wasted space -- just a way to reduce my confusion.
tedd
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